‘It’s surreal,’ says Quebec athletic therapist chosen to go to Paris Olympic Games

Maxim Hanna woke up in Paris, Fra. today, and only one word describes how he feels: surreal.

“Pinch me because it’s sometimes surreal. Honestly, it is surreal,” he tells CTV News, sitting on a bench in the Olympic Village, the five rings glowing in the distance.

The athletic therapist and osteopath is the only sports therapist from Quebec who is part of the Canadian medical team in Paris.

“I’m trying to enjoy every moment and just being part of it as well,” he said. “It’s very surreal. I feel very honoured to be here. I feel very honoured to have been chosen to wear the flag and represent Canada as an athletic therapist.”

He says the road to Paris took more than a year and a half, including five hours dedicated to filling out forms.

“It’s a rigorous process,” he explains.

Once put together, the medical team had a trial run of sorts at the Pan-American Games in Santiago, Chile.

“From there, we got finalized. We got our final ticket to Paris,” he said. “[It was] a little bit stressful, but you just put your head down, do your work, and then enjoy the process.”

Maxim Hanna is the only Quebec sports therapist on Canada’s medical team. (Maxim Hanna)

Hanna, with his background in working with combat sport athletes, including MMA fighter Georges St-Pierre, says some of the Olympic teams he’s taking care of include boxing and archery.

He points out that a few bumps and bruises when performing at high levels can’t always be avoided.

“They’ve prepared for this for the last four years of their lives, so they’re coming in prepared,” he said. “Our goal as athletic therapists is basically making sure that we get them in the best possible shape when they compete.”

Hanna stresses the medical team is prepared to take care of both major injuries and minor accidents.

“You can step off a step here in the [Olympic] Village and just twist your ankle,” he points out. “It can be as innocent as that sometimes.”

Maxim Hanna is the only Quebec sports therapist on Canada’s medical team. (Maxim Hanna)

Though he may not be the one standing on the podium at the end of the day, Hanna says there’s still a lot of pressure on him to do his job well.

“They’re in a high-stress event, so we need to be cool, calm and collected when dealing with these athletes,” he explains.

When asked about a comment he made about how he hopes not to work very hard during the Games, Hanna laughs.

“It’s not the work. I love, I enjoy my job,” he chuckles. “But…when I’m here, if we’re not doing any work and the athletes are great and they’re being taken care of and their bodies are being well maintained, then it diminishes the amount of work that we need to do.”

Nevertheless, Hanna says he’s ready should an athlete need him in a pinch.

“The last thing we want as athletic therapists or anyone in the medical staff is to be really busy with, for example, injuries leading up to competition,” he notes, adding he is doing a lot of maintenance work with the athletes. “But we are ready to work in under any circumstance.”